Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Like the Mets it’s tough to know how many bad decisions were owner driven.

This takes us back to the original premise: Showalter and Duquette are good at what they do. They, together, helped lift a moribund franchise back to relevancy.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Showalter gets at least one interview this offseason for one of baseball’s managerial vacancies or if Duquette ends up as special assistant somewhere given his keen eye for undervalued assets.

But for them to get hired in high-profile, decision-making positions again, an organization will have to overlook what has happened in Baltimore since September 2017.

In the “what-have-you-done-lately” world of baseball, that may be a tall order. Especially considering the falls from grace are illustrative of the negative perceptions – fair or not – that have followed both men during successful baseball careers.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

It won’t be long now. We’ll soon find out how the Orioles intend to proceed with their rebuilding program and who will be in charge of it in the front office and on the field.

The speculation has been going on all season about who will stay and who will go, and there have been recent loosely attributed reports that manager Buck Showalter is on the way out and executive vice president Dan Duquette will be sticking around for a while.

That sounds logical enough, since the Orioles have succeeded in setting a record for failure. The manager usually pays the price for nonperformance, and Showalter has seen so much of that this year that he might only have to be asked nicely to go screaming into the night.

The question: If you were “someone better”, would you agreed to sign with the Orioles as conditions currently stand?